The French news Agency (AFP), has slammed as fake, the photograph depicting the bloodied face of al-Qaeda leader, Osama Bin Laden, which is being circulated on the web and was published by some newspapers today.

•The fake Osama photo
AFP, using a programme called Tungstene, had scanned the image, side-by-side, with a similar old photograph of Bin Laden. The programme helps to analyse and define digital noise in a photographic image.

In a photo that has not been manipulated, the level of noise is relatively uniform, AFP said, adding that the bloodied Bin Laden image reveals “a high level of conflicting noise which suggests it was made from multiple elements.”

According to AFP, the picture above shows that the beard and the lower part was cloned and pasted on the image of a body that doesn’t belong to Bin Laden.

The al-Qaeda leader was killed in a highly secretive commando operation by American soldiers on Sunday in Pakistan. The reports from the American operatives said he was first shot in the left eye and then, the chest area. In contrast, the doctored photograph showed that Bin Laden was shot in the right eye.

What do you think of Osama Bin Laden’s death?